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BREAKING: Mammoth Chamber opposes minimum wage hike

The Mammoth Lakes Chamber of Commerce has taken a firm stand on raising the minimum wage by $2 over the next two years.

It doesn’t like it.

In a strongly worded statement that went to its members on Monday, Sept. 23, the Mammoth Chamber urged opposition to a law that, if signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, would raise the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10 an hour over the next 18 months.

“The Mammoth Lakes Chamber of Commerce supports a fair wage in California and supports incremental increases related to the Consumer Price Index (CPI),” the Chamber said in a news release.

“However, bill AB-10 which recently passed in both houses of the [California] state legislature is overreaching and potentially harmful to California businesses.”

Brown, who lobbied heavily in support of the bill, said he would sign it.

The 25% increase would be the first minimum-wage hike in California in five years and would put extra money in the pockets of an estimated 2.4 million Californians.

"This is the time to raise the minimum wage to provide relief for hard-working families," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville).

According to Alejo, about 3 of 5 minimum-wage earners are 26 or older.

Labor unions lobbied heavily for the bill, both in the Legislature and at the governor's office. Business groups opposed it.

The bill won final passage in the Assembly on Thursday evening, Sept. 19, by a 51-25 vote. Earlier in the day it received a 26-11 vote of approval by the state Senate.

This bill is currently on Brown's desk. He has until October 13 to either veto it or sign it into law.